Greek Taverna of Lincroft , (Formally Stamna of Lincroft) New Jersey......................

Yes, I’m aware of of ole Lambshanks past, I was kind of curious of any one else.

I do not mean to pick a fight here, but the reason why I’m a little curious is that people who say we oughtta open up a restaurant often have no idea of the amount of work that’s involved.

I get it all the time, I have a little experience, and I can tell that running a restaurant is not nearly as much fun as most people think. It’s certainly not like it’s depicted in the movies or on cooking shows. If you think you were working hard before, just open a restaurant.

To do this you have to be prepared to more or less give up most of the rest of your life for the duration, since you work long and strange hours. In the kitchen it’s hot, sweaty, sometimes back breaking work. These days you also more or less need to speak fluent colloquial Spanish or Fujianese. You also need to invest in a comfortable pair of rubber clogs, supp hose and a back brace, and be ready for burns and cuts. Then you have to be able to deal with the pressure of the rush, when everything comes at once and everybody is scteaming, without totally loosing it.

If you are trying to run the front end you are dealing with late rent and landlords who become your de facto partner even if you can’t stand them, a host of lame excuses from suppliers who don’t deliver stuff on time but still expect to get paid, a gaggle of inspectors who are always looking to shut you down, and a bunch of druggie/alki employees who don’t show up for shifts and don’t tell you they are not going to show up, the hostess with the blue eyes and great tits who secretly went to charm school at bitches-r-us, and charming bartenders who rob you blind by pouring free drinks for extra tips. You pretty much have to keep eyeballs on it 24/7 to avoid disasters.

The most accurate book I’ve ever read about this is Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I suggest everyone get a copy and read this.

Did I miss anything JR?

And again, I’m kind of curious who else has lived the life, however briefly.

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Again I’m not mad at anyone, especially friends I haven’t yet met, and I don’t want to pick fights with anybody.

Just sos we’re clear here.

Oh really? Have we met?

Not in person, but you leave quite a footprint on the internet. Plus you have mentioned your family’s ownership of the restaurant, your dealings with D’Anton, and the landlord thing here.

Again, friends we haven’t met, at least in person.

Any thoughts on the let’s buy a restaurant idea?

Unless you’re investing in something Danny Meyer is doing(and really, he doesn’t need anyone’s $$), I can’t imagine doing it. I have friends who have owned restaurants, I know a lot of chefs, and I even dated one for a while… None of them have/had a life, they work their tails off, and most of them don’t make very much money and deal with more grief than not.
I agree with @joonjoon that anyone interested in food and dining should read Kitchen Confidential, but also Setting the Table, which I think is a fantastic book about hospitality, and although it’s specifically about the restaurant biz, there are great lessons in it that can be applied to ANY industry.

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What we should do is buy the Lincroft Inn and serve mediocre food and overpriced drinks. We all know that is the formula for success in Monmouth county.

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It worked for them for 40+ years! I am very anxious to see what becomes of the place.

Interesting…

Hey! Don’t want to take credit, that was @VikingKaj. Anyway I am 90% joking when I say we should open up a restaurant, I am aware of the difficulties involved. A man can dream though!

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It took me a while to reply, not sure if I’m actually answering anything for you or just rambling about my experiences, either way here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

It’s nothing like what you see in the movies, but then again what in life is? I learned this at an early age when I got my first pair of superman underoos, I added a cape but still couldn’t fly! There is a reason why most of the successful people in the industry truly have a passion for it.

To this day I credit my ability to multi task to the lessons taught to me from being a server and a line cook. Few people truly realize the mental organization it takes to be a good server. When I served we didn’t use food runners, you were responsible for all aspects of service, with the assistance of a bus person. It is imperative when you are in the kitchen getting table 2’s salads; you marry them on your tray with table 6 desert. Doing the most with the least amount of trips into and out of the kitchen leaves you on the floor where your tables can see you, and most importantly you can see your tables. To this day when I cook, I do all my prep at once then I proceed to cooking all my dishes together or simultaneously. I find it too tedious to concentrate on individual dishes rather than multitasking and doing everything together.

Regarding employees this really varies a bit from your moderate priced restaurants like TGIF – Ruby Tuesday – Olive Garden – Red Lobster – Joes Crab Shack etc. in these restaurants your serving staff are generally going to be transitional employees. Students, pat time Moms, part time people supplementing their income, people between full time day jobs. These are the most difficult people to manage, because they are only viewing the job as a short term fix for whatever they are going through in life. It’s hard to find people that are reliable and it’s hard to find people who truly care.

Once you get into finer dining, table cloth service there is an industry of professionals, people who for one reason or another have dedicated themselves to the hospitality industry and who treat their job as their profession. Easiest way to tell if someone is “industry”, when meeting or interviewing them is to ask them if they have a wine key. Perhaps not on their person, but almost certainly in their car. Hell, it’s been 5 years since I’ve had a hand in actively managing a restaurant, I still have wine keys in my center console. If they have their wine key, then I have them open a bottle of wine after those two things I have all I need to know if you are an industry server.

Another thing I learned early on and I have carried with me in any business I have managed, is to know every job of every person you manage. If you cannot relate the challenges subordinates face while performing their jobs, you cannot properly manage them. If your subordinates realize you “need” them, because you cannot perform their job, you cannot properly manage them. This is the only way to protect yourself from your kitchen staff from trying to exploit you. To be an efficient manager and leader you need to earn the respect of those you manage, there is a reason why regardless of your experience in life you cannot join the military at the rank of General. In order to be an effective owner or manager you have to have earned your stripes in the trenches, only then will you have the respect of your staff, only then will your staff dedicated to doing their best.

The hours are grueling and your life generally revolves around the people you work with because your hours are the opposite of 9-5. Remember you are there to provide hospitality to the masses when they aren’t working, so you are literally working the opposite of 95% of society. Most if not all of your social circles are either co-workers or other industry professionals. In most fine dining you are working long hours, grueling shifts, down time are surrounded by booze and generally there is a healthy supply of recreational drug(s) “around”. I have never worked in a restaurant that didn’t have their salacious love affair(s)………it’s all part of the business.

Personally I was born into the business so its second nature to me and while I have my own “day job” and career, the business will always be in my blood and I will always have close ties to it. It many ways it’s been my first true love. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart. Lol (that’s an understatement)

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Yes to everything you wrote plus the hours spent 9-5 dealing with vendors,
emergency repairs, delivery, payroll… folks that work only those hours

People often don’t realize that in addition to work occurring during hours of
operation that same amount of work is often occurring during
hours of non operation.

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Can we get this printed on one of those inspirational posters and distribute it to EVERY person in EVERY profession who manages other human beings, please?!?

I’ve never worked in the industry, but have a very close friend who waited tables at an upscale (not full-on Per Se-type fine dining, but upscale) restaurant in midtown for years. He made a ton of money IN CASH, and I lived vicariously through his stories (good and bad) about great managers, arsehole owners, angry and awesome chefs, and of course, all of drama between co-workers. This was 25 years ago, and I still say I don’t know how those servers/bussers/runners do it, but I appreciate it as a customer, and I’m a lifelong good tipper as a result.

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I keep a Swiss army knife with a corkscrew in my pocket at all times unless flying. And I probably have a som knife in my car if I dig around a little.

In the statement you copy pasted you could easily substitute “wine key” with Swiss Army knife and “industry” with psycho…errrrrr I mean loveable!!!

Well there is a story behind that.

The day after the New Years Eve party at the American Embassy Party in Paris in my younger days I found myself at the Gare du Nord in Paris in a train back to Germany with an excellent bottle of burgundy (as I recall a Côtes Roti) and a buxom German study partner but no corkscrew. And the wagon attendant did not have one either, and the restaurant car was closed until breakfast.

Needless to say I broke the neck of the bottle off on the side of the train.

And when I got back to Germany I bought the Spartan model Swiss army knife with corkscrew as soon as the stores opened, and until 9/11 I have had one on my key chain when traveling ever since.

Very handy for impromptu picnics at all times and more useful than a som knife in your pocket.

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Ah Glass knapping, fine wine, knives and talented German women. This thread just got better :slight_smile:

Thought this might be of interest to you…

http://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/bfs/5800280747.html

What a location!

Perfectly sited for the next hell fire, typhoon, coastal flood, gubernatorial speech, or other unspecified retributive Act of God.

Nice !

PS. I would place a big bounty poster for Snooki and the rest of those idiots in the front window.

Anything more on the “sale” of Nikos?